<<< CONTENTS >>>

1. WELCOME "HOME" TO DAIS!!!
2. GETTING INTO PRACTICE AT PRACTICING WHAT IS PREACHED:
   
   Is Your Web Page Accessible?

3. OUTSIDE RECOMMENDATIONS: Help, Hindrance, Or a Place to Hide?
4. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
   
   How Do 504./ADA Define a Learning Disability?

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By the time you read this newsletter, the DAIS website will have been open for about 2 weeks. At last check, more than 700 people have visited in that time -- and I hope more of you will stop by in the near future. The url is:

http://www.janejarrow.com

As noted in the April newsletter, there are a number of pieces to the site that will be constantly changing and thus, hopefully, bringing you back time and again. And while you are at it -- bring a friend! You DO consider the faculty and administrators at your institution to be friends, right? Visit the Dining Room at the Home of DAIS and find some interesting "food for thought." Currently, in the Administrator's Corner there is a reprint posted of an article from last year's Newsletter, "The Best Way to Prepare for an OCR Visit" (direct access through http://www.janejarrow.com/corners/admin.htm). In the Faculty Corner you will find an article entitled "When Faculty are TOO Accommodating" (http://www.janejarrow.com/corners/faculty.htm).

Many of the subscribers to the DAIS Newsletter are at small private institutions. There is something special at our website for you, as well. When you visit the Dining Room you will read more about a new technical assistance mechanism being established specifically to respond to the unique needs of such institutions -- the Independent Colleges and Universities (ICU) unit. Be connected with others facing similar issues through a kind of modified listserv that may help you resolve your questions AND feel less isolated all at the same time!

Trying to determine how best to begin organizing the Study/Workroom area (which will eventually provide links and reference information broadly useful to the field of disability services) has been an interesting challenge. Among other things, the issue of disability access to the web has become a very Real issue for me, rather than a philosophical one, in the last two weeks (more about that below in the article titled, "Getting Into Practice at Practicing What Is Preached!"). Currently I am trying to gather url's for disability services web pages that others might look to as examples, as well as url's for disability services policies/procedures online. If your institution has put such information on the web, please send me the web address so it can be included in the listing.

One final suggestion regarding your first/next visit to the Home of DAIS. In the Library, you will find information on all the print resources currently available through DAIS. As the end of the school year (and thus the fiscal year) approaches for many, you may find that you have a little money left over in your budget. If you are at an institution that operates on the "if you don't use it, you lose it" philosophy, consider investing some of those funds in resource materials. We recently filled an order for 40 copies of the book "Higher Education and the ADA: Issues and Perspectives." When I called the service provider to inquire what she intended to DO with all those books, she indicated that she was planning to give one to each member of her Advisory Board and send one to each Department Chair. Hmmmmm....

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As noted above, the debut of the DAIS webpage has brought the issue of web accessibility "home" (pun intended!). After harping on the issue so much in the last several editions of the DAIS Newsletter, it was important to be sure that what we put in place would be something that could be used as a good example of how to make your website a user-friendly place for all, including those with disabilities. Thanks to the technical expertise of my webmaster, Charley Tiggs, I think the DAIS website fulfills that goal for now -- but I am learning that there is still work to be done!

For some websites that use lots of fancy graphics, frames, and tables (are you impressed with the way I am starting to master this computer lingo?), it is often appropriate to provide a "text only" version of the webpage. In other words, a single file provided in text format that will be readily accessible to those using adaptive equipment and that provides all the vital content of the website without the frills. Because the DAIS website is primarily text information to begin with, and because we carefully constructed the site without using potentially troublesome techniques, it was not necessary to provide a "text only" version. However, the VERY FIRST THING you find at the top of the webpage is the universal symbol for internet access and an invitation to "click on the Access Ramp" to find out how best to explore the site. Visitors who accept the invitation are given a brief description of how the pages are arranged within the website (i.e., a minimum of graphics, a place at the bottom of each page to allow you to send email to DAIS, a button that returns you to the home page, and so on). There is also specific note of any potential problems in accessing the site using adaptive technology (e.g., there is note of the fact that the Boston University webpage that was moved to the DAIS site was constructed using frames but there is a "text only" version available to users through the cover page). Several people have commented that this kind of "road map" of what to expect makes navigating through the site much easier for folks using adaptive technology.

There are all sorts of accessibility features coded into the construction of the page; I don't understand much of the technical information, but fortunately Charley does! I just wanted to know whether, when all was said and done, the website (starting with the home page) was accessible to everyone. Enter the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) and Bobby.

CAST is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to expand opportunities for all people -- especially those with disabilities -- through the innovative uses of computer technology. "Bobby" is the name of the free online service of CAST that will analyze single web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities. You can reach Bobby at http://www.cast.org/bobby. There are several versions of Bobby currently available at this site (they are in the process of upgrading their standards). If you click on "Bobby 2.0" when you reach the CAST site, it will take you to the Bobby 2.0 checker. You feed in the address you want checked (for the DAIS home page you need only enter www.janejarrow.com) and Bobby goes to that site and runs the page through a list of commonly accepted accessibility barriers. The results will be summarized in a ranking of "one star" to "four stars." More importantly, the ranking is followed by specific information about problems discovered by the Bobby check, going line-by-line and talking in "computerese." Those who know about HTML coding and how to create web pages will understand the information passed along. The rest of us can simply feed that information through to the people who do the webpage construction on our behalf. Bobby is best used as a TOOL. If you run your webpage through a Bobby check and receive information about potential access problems, you can use that information to address those problems specifically and improve the access. The DAIS home page now receives a Bobby rating of Four Stars, but we are still working at cleaning up bits and pieces in the coding of email addresses and links on other pages throughout the site.

Bobby is not the "end all and be all" for webpage accessibility. The system itself is being upgraded to reflect more stringent access standards under development by a worldwide consortium on web access. The system checks for compatibility with various web browsers and its complaints about browser compatibility are often very simplistic -- it is shooting for the common denominator in all the systems in use and therefore does not like anything creative because it MIGHT be a problem for someone, sometime (e.g., it hates the decorative line divider used on the DAIS website to distinguish between topics). Moreover, Bobby is analyzing the coding and the readability of the information provided, but is not capable of analyzing the content of that information. For example, it objects to the descriptive title of the DAIS link that says, "Click here to visit the kitchen and find out what's cooking at DAIS" because it believes it to be confusing, simply because it is long. In experimenting with Bobby on other web pages, it gave a very poor rating to access for one page that began by providing a link to a "text only" version. Bobby acknowledged that the top line was fully accessible, but complained about much of what was present below -- it did not have the capability of following that link to examine the access of the information formatted specifically to that purpose. Nevertheless, Bobby is a great place to START, to see if you need to explore or consider possible changes.

After having worked so hard to make the DAIS website accessible, we are now facing a whole new set of challenges. The hope is that the website will provide direct links to other internet resources that may be useful to visitors, from information on upcoming conferences to sample policies and procedures for DSS offices. On the DSSHE-L listserv, I asked folks who had web pages for their DSS offices to forward the url's for those sites so that we could establish links from the DAIS website. Of the first six addresses received, two of them took me to websites that were largely inaccessible to people using adaptive technology. I cannot control the access provided (or not!) by others, but I find myself in an ethical dilemma as to whether/how to direct people to such sites knowing they are not fully usable. Currently, we are trying to figure out how to make information and links available without compromising standards for accessibility. Stay tuned -- and start checking!

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The topic of making recommendations from the diagnostician a required part of complete documentation of disability has been a subject of past exploration in this newsletter ("Be Careful What You Wish For... You May Get It!," Volume I, No. 2; February, 1997). In that earlier discussion I addressed the inherent problems in requiring that recommendations be included, thus suggesting you fully intend to follow all those recommendations (from "unlimited time" to "no tests" to demands for waiver of requirements). Recently, however, I saw the other side of the problem. The institution involved was using recommendations from outside evaluators to abdicate their responsibility under the law -- and not very effectively or subtly!

The DSS director at this insitituion does not have a background in disability (one of those people who comes to the position under the "other duties as assigned" clause in her contract). Because of her minimal training in this area, she is uncomfortable in making determination of appropriate accommodations for access. Thus, the office has adopted a policy which states, "we will provide the accommodations recommended by the diagnostician." My immediate thought was, "Wrong! What will you do the first time the recommendations are outlandish and you don't want to provide them?" Then I realized that in this case the policy was being practiced as "we will provide ONLY the accommodations recommended by the diagnostician. Worse still! A case in point...

They have a student at this institution who was recently diagnosed with a language-based learning disability. The diagnostician recommended that the student be provided with a quiet proctored setting and extended time on tests. The student is currently enrolled in an English Composition class in which evaluation is dependent on performance on in-class writing assignments. The student has requested that she be allowed to have extended time and use of a wordprocessor with a spelling checker. The DSS office has refused to support the request because "the diagnostician didn't say there was a need for extended time on in-class assignments, only on TESTS, and nowhere is there mention of the use of a wordprocessor or spelling checker." The DSS coordinator is using the outside evaluator to do her thinking for her, but has not told the evaluator the critical importance of detailed recommendations that might be provided. The DSS coordinator (and the institution?) believe it is safe to say, "we aren't experts in this area so we relied on what the experts told us." I would be very surprised if the Office for Civil Rights were willing to allow the institution to use such a practice if/when it results in denying appropriate accommodations to students with disabilities!

Does that mean that institutions must have LD specialists, and ADD specialists, and deafness specialists, and BVI specialists, and... ??? No, I don't think so. What every institution needs is someone who is an ACCOMMODATIONS SPECIALIST. This individual can be self-taught or formally instructed. The job may be full time or part of another assignment. The individual doesn't have to have specific expertise in all areas of disability -- HE/SHE SIMPLY NEEDS TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO REASON AND ACCESS TO A TELEPHONE. There is no formula that can be put in place, no easy way to streamline the process of assigning accommodations. The individual charged with the responsibility must be able and willing to think when the situation calls for it... AND that individual must be able to recognize when it is time to pick up the phone and call a colleague who has the expertise you don't have and say, "What do I do NOW?"

One of the nicest things about working in the field of disability services is that it is the least territorial field I know. Doing a good job for and with the students with disabilities on your campus does not detract IN ANY WAY from the good job being done by your colleagues down the road. In fact, if you are successful in your efforts, that's one less student with a disability that the overworked, underpaid, service-providers-down-the-road will have to deal with, so it is worth their while to make sure you have all the information you need to do it right! Don't be afraid to think. Don't be afraid to ask questions. But DON'T try to pass off your (and the institution's!) responsibility for providing equal access by hiding behind outside recommendations -- or lack thereof!

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Q. (A service provider asks) "How do Section 504 and ADA define a learning disability? On our campus we have been arguing about whether the student must have a 1- or 2-standard deviation discrepancy in their scores in order to be classified as LD."

A. There ARE no federal regs that speak to the discrepancy that must be demonstrated to qualify as a person with a learning disability who is protected under 504/ADA. The federal government does not define what constitutes a disability in the context you have suggested. As far as 504/ADA are concerned, someone has a disability if they have "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity." Period. That is as precise as the feds get. The fleshing out of that intent is left to the good judgement and good practice of individuals!

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(End of Newsletter)